Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Simplicity is Contagious

The great thing about the month of nothing is that you really focus on simplicity. And not only the simplicity of eating less crap and wasting less money on junk of various shapes and sizes. Somehow focusing on the simpler life in one thing carries over to other areas. The big bonus for me is the area’s simplicity has been leaking off on. Namely my other nemeses of clutter and weight control. So my updates on those areas are pretty good.

For the clutter, which I’m always working on, I took on a challenge issued to my sis Trenadoll at an eight week organization class she’s attending. She’s kindly posting the organizing challenges on her blog and I figured I’d try and attempt them as well. So week one was get rid of half your clothes. (WHAT?) Did I hear right? It figures, because I heard somewhere that we wear 10 or 20% of our clothes 80% of the time so why would you need the other clothes that you don’t wear. So guess what – I did it- 50%. BEFORE!

Good-bye clothes.

But you need to hear my twist. In addition to losing the things I just never wear I also purged my closet of some of my more comfortable, elastic waist-ed clothes. So what did I keep – a lot of my snuggies. The darling outfits that are a bit tight or show my bludges more than I’m comfortable with.

Why? I’m insane, or brave, or a little of both. And it’s extra incentive to keep losing the blasted fat. I can’t let people think I’m a hoochie mama who dresses in clothes two sizes too small on purpose. So you bet, I’m going to burn those calories and eat healthy so that I don’t bust seams, scare the neighbors, and embarrass the noodles out of my kids.

For the weight – I’m almost at my two week mark and I can’t tell you exactly how much I’ve lost. Smiley doesn’t want to know because the suspense of not knowing if you’re ahead or behind on our $100 challenge is another incentive to keep going strong. So, even though I won’t tell you my total weight loss, I will tell you I’m below 170 lbs. mark now. Wahoo!

So this week I’ve been working on some more canning.

Sadly, this is all I have to show for 3 days of off and on canning. I’m still proud of it because I’ve never canned peaches or pears before and they turned out pretty good. The bad thing is I’ve discovered the real reason behind my slow canning experience. Our stove only has two burners. When we bought it we thought it would be amazingly cool to have a grill on one side and burners on the other. WRONG! The grill is such a pain in the ________! It takes an hour to clean after each use. So we don’t use it and are left with half a stove top that works – well sort-of. The large burner on the working side has a electrical short in it and you have to put pans on it just so or it doesn’t heat at all. ( I know I'm tempting fate with a house fire because of it.) Once I got my water bath boiling and was setting the timer for the peaches. I probably accidently jostled the canner when I put the lid on and 25 minutes later when the timer rang I discovered that the stove was off and the water had cooled. Good thing my kids like peaches because we’ve been eating that batch all week – Cobbler… anyone?

So next month I’m pulling for some new burner inserts for the stove top. This time we’ll be getting the four burners and skip the grill.

I haven’t attempted the oil filter change yet because I don’t want to buy oil and a filter in our small, but expensive, town and I don’t have enough errands planned to make it to the big city yet. But when I do go, I’m seeing if the supplies to make the change are cheaper than Jiffy Lube. If they are cheaper by $5 then I’m going to attempt it. You know, just because I like to acquire mad mom skills and all.

My question is: What do you do about the "nice" clothes that you would wear to a cocktail party? I mean, I don't wear them more than once a year, maybe, but I don't necessarily have the option of buying new when it's needed. But it seems like such a waste to keep those things.

Good job on the weight loss! I had a bad couple of days after I ate a trigger food--popcorn. Even my 9 yo boy said that he's hungry all day after eating popcorn! Too bad he didn't tell me before the popcorn and the 3rd piece of cake!

Being the social butterfly that I am not. I’ve never bought that cute party dress because I’ve never been to parties. Used the babies as excuses of not being able to go. That way I could hide my fat body from others. However I’m thinking if I get invited now I would probably purchase that once or twice a year dress because I’m not as embarrassed to show my mug in public. I know sadly self-conscious. But I’m getting better.

That was a big step for me when I was losing weight... getting rid of the "fallback" clothes. I think in addition to "goal" clothes, though, it's important to have clothes that you feel fabulous in right now, whatever size you are. It doesn't do a lot for your self esteem to have everything you own make you feel like a sausage, even if it's a progressively smaller sausage. And you now officially weigh less than I did before I got pregnant :-)

I need to go back through and cull my closet again once things start to firm up post-Ivy.

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Henry David Thoreaufrom the "Conclusion" to Walden

I Belong...

". . .Dear women, I say thanks to you. Thank you for being the kind of people you are and doing the things you do. May the blessings of heaven rest upon you. May your prayers be answered and your hopes and dreams become realities. . .May you live with love one for another. May you reach down to lift up those whose burdens are heavy. May you bring light and beauty to the world and particularly into your homes and into the lives of your children. . . You may never know how much good you accomplish. Someone's life will be blessed by your effort. . . " President Gordon B. Hinckley